The BBC's chief content officer Charlotte Moore has predicted that EastEnders will be on air for a long time to come.
In recent years the soap's viewing figures have dropped to their lowest ever levels - and even though it delivers strong figures on iPlayer, the linear overnight figures are consistently less than half of that achieved by ITV rivals Coronation Street and Emmerdale.
In a bid to reverse the slump, earlier this year the BBC brought in a new executive producer in the form of Chris Clenshaw, who has overseen a huge talent overhaul that has led to the departure of 14 members of the regular cast so far.
Talking about the show's future at the Edinburgh TV Festival today, Moore told delegates: "I think with the changing nature of viewing, it's changing the way soaps are being watched and consumed.
"EastEnders is such an important title for us, it's the most popular young audience title we have on iPlayer in terms of the volume of people it brings in every week.
"Chris Clenshaw is our new showrunner – he's fantastic. He's got big plans to evolve EastEnders creatively in the next few years. It's an incredibly important title."
EastEnders has been a permanent fixture of the BBC One schedules since February 1985.
Neil Wilkes
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